the open source diagnostics platform of the web

Monthly Archives: November 2015

Yesterday we launched Glimpse v2 Beta1 for ASP.NET 5 and we couldn’t be prouder of this achievement. Over the course of the coming weeks and months we will be sharing lots of tips and tricks on how to use and optimize all the new features of v2. Today, however, we thought we’d start with the absolute basics – how to install it.

Here is Scott Hanselman talking about Glimpse v2 at the ASP.NET 5 RC1 launch at //Connect();.

Installing v2 couldn’t be easier. You just need to add the “Glimpse” package to your web project and then add Glimpse to your Startup.cs. This post contains a detailed walkthrough of these steps, just in case you aren’t all that familiar with ASP.NET 5 yet.

NOTE: This release of Glimpse v2 targets ASP.NET 5 RC1 (either Core or full CLR). In the a future release Glimpse v2 will extend support for earlier versions of .NET.

Adding Glimpse Package

Adding the Glimpse package to your web project is quite simple. It can be done either by the new “NuGet” dialog window or directly by updating your project.json. See details on both options below.

“Manage NuGet Packages” Option
If you go down the dialog route, simply right click on your target web project and select “Manage NuGet Packages…”.
Once the dialog opens, make sure you select the “Include Prerelease” checkbox, and then search for “Glimpse”. Then select the package named “Glimpse” and “Install” it into your project.

Directly to your project.json Option
It is just as easy to add glimpse via the project.json directly. To do this simply add glimpse to the root dependencies section of your project.json and add "Glimpse": "2.0.0-beta1".

Updating your Startup.cs

Once the package is referenced in your project, you need to update your Startup.cs so that Glimpse is hooked into your application. Specifically, services.AddGlimpse(); needs to be added to your ConfigureServices(...) method (to register our services with the ServiceCollection) and app.UseGlimpse(); to your Configure(...) method.

Run your site

Once the above steps are complete, Glimpse will be turned on by default for any request you make from “localhost” moving forwards. This “localhost” restriction can be lifted and other restrictions added in its place or in addition. Look for more details on these configuration and extensions options coming soon.

If you would like a sample application that already has Glimpse configured and running, feel free to download the Glimpse source and try out the various sample projects.

Glimpse v2 is a major evolution of the platform. We’re extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished thus far, and we think you’ll like what you see. You’ll find lots of new bells and whistles that make Glimpse better than it ever has been, but I’d like to outline four key improvements to the Glimpse v2 experience.

Curated UI

Glimpse has always been about getting the diagnostics you need, when and where you need them. However, one of the most overwhelming pieces of feedback we have received over the years is that beyond the Heads-Up-Display, those diagnostics were not necessarily well presented and were sometimes difficult to parse.

In v2 we’ve strived to solve these issues by curating disparate data points from across multiple tabs and pulling them together into one cohesive story. We’ve also allowed diagnostics to become the real star, freeing them from the cramped space you’re used to seeing them in, and giving them the full window treatment they deserve; which coincidently makes switching between requests much easier than it was in v1. Take a look for yourself:

Cross Platform

Glimpse v2 is built completely upon ASP.NET 5 API’s, concepts and the CoreCLR. This means that Glimpse v2 automatically inherits all of the benefits of ASP.NET 5, including its ability to run cross platform on Windows, Linux and OSX.

Now everywhere you can run your site, you’ll be able to use Glimpse v2 to debug and diagnose it as well.

Full Stack

Since its inception, Glimpse has been known as “F12 tools for your server”. But as you’ll no doubt know, web development doesn’t happen only on the server.

With this in mind, Glimpse v2 has begun to leverage new browser diagnostic API’s to tell a more complete, full stack story. You’ll now be able to glean insight into some of the processing happening in the browser, right in the context of your server side diagnostics, for many request.

Production Ready

Glimpse really shines during development time. Its ease of installation and use is what’s made Glimpse v1 a favorite among web developers for years. Unfortunately, in many situations Glimpse did not work well once your application was pushed to production.

In Glimpse v2, this all changes. A much larger class of applications will now be able to use Glimpse in production environments to debug and diagnose problems in real time.

In the coming weeks we’ll devote more of this blog to covering the ins and outs of these four key features, as well as other changes, and cover exactly what they mean for you.

βeta Beware

Of course, it wouldn’t be responsible for me to cover all of the greatness that is Glimpse v2 without also reviewing its current limitations and known issues.

First of all, what we’re releasing today is an early beta build meant for gathering feedback from users and extension authors. It may have a few rough edges, the user interface is a work in progress and it certainly isn’t feature complete. Look for more stable builds, improved UX and the re-introduction of beloved features such as Timeline and the Trace tab in the future.

It’s also worth noting that Glimpse v2 Beta1 only runs on ASP.NET 5. While using the latest and greatest does have its own perks, for existing applications you’ll need to stick with Glimpse v1. That also means that Glimpse v1 extensions are incompatible with Glimpse v2. In the future we’re going to bridge this gap so that everyone, including .NET 4.5 and .NET 4.0 users will be able to benefit from the new features of Glimpse v2.

Next Steps

Over the next several weeks, keep an eye on this blog and our GitHub repository where we’ll continue to improve Glimpse v2, support and update along with ASP.NET 5 and march towards a full, final 2.0 release.